The director of Ecuador’s biggest prison was killed in an armed attack on September 12, the second such killing in under two weeks in the Latin American country, the SNAI prison agency said, Report informs referring to AFP.
Maria Daniela Icaza, director of the infamous Litoral penitentiary in the port city Guayaquil died of injuries sustained “following an armed attack on the road” leading to the nearby town of Daule, the agency said.
She died while being taken to hospital, the agency said in a WhatsApp message, adding that an official from the prison service who was travelling with her was injured in the incident.
Ecuador’s prisons are among the most dangerous in the world, and many have been taken over by drug gangs.
Icaza’s death comes nine days after the head of a prison in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, Alex Guevara, was killed, also in an armed attack while traveling by car.
Two other workers who were with him were wounded after unknown assailants raked his vehicle with gunfire.
And two weeks ago, two prison officers in Guayaquil were murdered on their way to work.
Ecuador registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a rate of six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.
Noboa’s government claims that its offensive against organized crime has reduced homicides.